Day 5: Following the Mississippi River Trail

Route: Minneapolis to Melrose, Minnesota
Distance: 105 miles

The municipal campground in Melrose, Minnesota. I stayed at three municipal campgrounds on my trip. Normally places for large motorhomes, I found these campgrounds had everything I needed after a long day. Two of three had hot showers. The prices were reasonable, and there were electrical outlets to recharge my electronics.

Love stories are over when the couple find each another. What else is there to say? Travel days where not much happens don’t need too many words, either.

I woke up early in Minneapolis with a plan — It didn’t work out, and I’m glad it didn’t. The plan was based on the previous day’s experience riding through the suburbs. Today, I was going to take my bike to the train station and ride north, out of the city and toward St. Cloud, Minnesota, allowing me to get out into rural areas and closer to what had become my final destination of Audubon, Minnesota. The night before, I had checked train schedules using Google maps and it looked like the perfect solution.

But when I showed up at the train station and did the same query, the results were not showing the train. I bought a ticket anyways and waited for a train, asking someone who got off if this went to St. Cloud. I figured I’d just wing it.

The train, it was told to me, was a commuter train. It didn’t run to St. Cloud again until the afternoon. That’s why it had showed up as an option the night before. For a brief moment, I considered sticking around the city and exploring and then catching the train. After all, if I rode my bike, I’d get there about the same time.

On the northwest side of Minneapolis, the Mississippi River Trail follows quiet bike paths and neighborhood streets through leafy riverfront communities.

But I came on this trip to ride my bike. So I rode. I found the Mississippi River Trail signs and headed northwest, finding a much different experience on this side of the city.

The day would prove to be the second-longest of my trip, but the riding was the easiest. The air temperature was cool. There was no wind and no humidity. The MRT followed bike paths, quiet residential streets and low-traffic roads with good shoulders.

The start of the Lake Wobegone Trail just outside of St. Joseph, Minnesota.

I steadily worked my way up to St. Cloud, arriving about the same time as the first commuter train would have in the early afternoon. I then decided to see just how far I could get that day. I stopped at Revolution Cycle and Ski in St. Cloud before heading west toward the Lake Wobegon Trail where I made it to the town of Melrose, which had a small municipal campground and a site on the edge of the Sauk River.

I pitched my tent for the last night of my journey.

The Wobegon Trail and the Central Lakes Trail are part of one of main routes for cross-country cyclists established by the Adventure Cycling Association, and I met my first cyclist crossing the country at the campground. He was a middle school math teacher from Colorado, who was about my age.

He was eager for conversation and invited me to camp by him. But I was tired and feeling a little sentimental about my trip coming to an end. I had a short conversation with him but ultimately made it clear that I wanted to be on my own. It is my one regret from the day.

Day 6: Following an impulse, paying the price